Bessie's sylvan: a dryland farmer's life and the forgotten communities of the Great Sage Plain
(Book)

Southwest Colorado at the beginning of the 20th century was frontier territory, the last of the wild west. Native populations were replaced by prospectors, cowboys and lumberjacks. Homesteaders were warned away from the area by the government, the land was a desert, too dry for farming, too wild for families.In 1927, Bessie White’s family lost their Kansas farm to a tax sale and were forced to flee to Canada to find work. Desperate to return to America, they ignored the warnings and in 1934 embarked in a Model T pickup on a journey across the vast emptiness of Canada, Montana, Idaho and Utah to their destination in Sylvan, Colorado.Bessie’s Sylvan is a portrait of life rich in delight, humor, gratitude, and wonderment. Bessie’s stories about how her family and community met the challenges of drylander life are illustrated by births, deaths, homesteads, hail storms, droughts, sod houses, schools, dances, and more. John Wolf’s narrative highlights the social history of the times as well as the stark, life and death realities of farming the frontier. Together, they remind us of the power of grace and community in the face of hardship, heartbreak and calamity